| In the Prologue to Shakespeare's Henry V, the Chorus enters and sings to invoke a "Muse of fire / that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention." The Old Bard asks for help to sing his tale, as all makers of story and song have done and continue to do. The fundamental premise of this project is that, above and beyond all other texts, the Bible has proved to be that "Muse of fire" for Western Literature. Drawing upon Northrop Frye's defense of how Biblical images fecundate the minds of both reader and writer, this project explains the relevance and beauty of Biblical Typology. The thesis also explores the work of Flannery O'Connor, pointing to her as a paragon for the imagination. Lastly, this project offers three original short stories that share this unifying methodology. The purpose of this project, therefore, is to present an essential hermeneutic and to argue for a return in critical theory to what we shall call a "Typological Imagination."... |
